Ministry Marketing CoachMinistry Branding and Marketing that Works

Many churches have mixed emotions about mail as an effective strategy for connecting with people who are not involved in church. Some have become frustrated by the lack of results they get from direct mail and have abandoned using mail altogether. Others use direct mail even though they are not sure they know how to use it strategically. If you are using direct mail, i.e.: postcards, letters, and inserts, check to see you are getting the most out of it before you give up on the medium. Make sure you are not making one of the five common direct mail mistakes:

Overcomplicating the Design

Desk top publishing has opened the world of creative design up for many churches. Nowadays, nearly anyone can develop high quality graphics for their church direct mail materials. Many are trying to push the envelope with ever-funkier design to the point that the design becomes the end instead of the means to an end. If your post card design is complicated to understand or difficult to read, the people you want to reach won’t take the time to figure out what you are trying to communicate, they’ll just toss it aside.

Missing Your Target

I have seen too many situations where ministry communicators pay scant attention to demographics when sending out direct mail. Too few are aware that you don’t have to target a geographic region based on zip codes to send mail, you can also send mail to people who fit specific demographic and lifestyle characteristics. Some churches have experienced success by sending their mail to people who match the demographics of the people who are already involved in their church. Learn more about how to target direct mail effectively.

Limiting Frequency

Problems also arise in direct mail strategy when church marketers try to broaden the scope of the people they reach when they really should consider how to increase the frequency of the times they reach people. In our message-cluttered world, it takes people more than one time seeing something before the “see” it. That’s why you should take a look at ways to narrow the number of people you reach so you can afford to send more than one mail piece to them.

Incomplete Information

You have heard the phrase, ‘familiarity breeds contempt”. Another thing familiarity does is it cause you to see things that are not there. When I see church marketing materials with no church address, website URL, or other contact information and show it to the churches that produced the materials, they are always surprised. Sometimes we become so familiar with what we want to say, we forget to look at what we produce through the eyes of the target audience. You may think you have written everything a person needs to know to respond to your direct mail communications, but have another person who is not as close to the project take a look at what you produce also. You will be surprised what you miss sometimes.

Making an Uninteresting Offer

People assume the problem of lack of response is because of the form of media used when it comes to direct mail. More often the reason nobody responds is what you are offering simply doesn’t interest them. There is no substitute for a compelling, interesting offer. Too often church marketers think a creative design and broad mail reach strategy will dress up almost any ministry the church puts out to the public. Not so! I have seen a lot of marketing tactics used to try to prop up lame outreach concepts. Try talking to your target audience and testing to see if what you are offer is of interest to them.